Status Report - 10 October 2017

[Baty Alquawen 3688]

This week, Brian is back with some of his early development memories, and a look at the future of DayZ with modding. Eugen is following up doing his best to explain our basic goals for 0.63 Experimental and 0.63 Stable (BETA). We're also welcoming back our Lead Gameplay Programmer Mirek - after months of non-stop hardcore programming, we made him share some of the behind the scenes science happening under his watch. To close things off, as usual, we have Baty taking a look at your awesome community content, and in his short update, we have our Brand Manager Martin offering what could possibly be a dream job for many of you content creators out there! Let's get to it.

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Contents This Week

• Dev Update/Brian
• Dev Update/Eugen
• Dev Update/Peter
• Dev Update/Mirek
• Dev Update/Martin
• Community Spotlight

 

Dev Update/Brian

Greetings Survivors! Apologies on missing the last Status Report - cards on the table, I knew the rest of the team had strong detailed info for you all and I didn't want to keep rehashing my sentiments on public development, or how big the move into BETA is for DayZ as a product. In the case of the last Status Report, I think the video said a lot more than anything I could type. Most of what you end up reading from me at this point in the project is related to postulation, concepts, and struggles and I'm honestly not certain that most of you are interested in that. 

We're at a stage where I feel like so many people out there are just holding their breath, waiting to get their hands on the first BETA builds and see for themselves how big the change is. Hell, I think I'm right there with you all on that.

Back in the summer of 2013 when Dean, Matt, and I were stuck in a tiny room above a laundry room out in Mnisek, we were whiteboarding key elements we thought DayZ should improve on the gameplay of the mod (beyond the obvious). A good deal of what was prototyped over 2014, and 2015 came from those whiteboard meetings.

I remember very clearly sitting down with Dean thinking on how we could improve the fresh spawned players chances to survive without basic weapons, as the desire was to make DayZ an experience similar to the novel "The Road" - which is where "punching" came in to play. (I distinctly remember Dean asking me if I thought it would make fresh spawns even more of a threat, and thus have a higher mortality rate when encountering skittish geared players - clearly I was wrong in dismissing this).

I'm rambling, but the point I'm trying to make is there is so much that the team, myself, Peter, have worked on throughout the years that just couldn't be done within the limitations that RV offered us - and it killed me to know time and time again that after documenting, and prototyping portions of the key design of what DayZ is to be that we were time and time again limited by the technology that DayZ originally steam with.

I can't emphasize enough to you all how insanely fortunate DayZ, and the DayZ dev team have been to have a company behind us that believes in the vision we set forth at the start of development to reach. So many titles I've worked on, or along side the development of have just had core mechanics, and feature sets lopped off with a hatchet in order to reach a set shelf date - never to reach their original full vision. It might be irritating to some out there in the user base, but the fact that we haven't had to sacrifice any of the core gameplay features yet is massive.

That said, one of the things Dean and I used to stress early on was that DayZ was not just a platform for people to create their own stories - but that like so many Bohemia titles before it, it is a platform for people to create their own vision of the apocalypse (or anything else that strikes their fancy).

This specific pillar of DayZ is one of many that will benefit massively from all the work that the engineering team has worked so hard on over the last few years. Ditching SQF alone is a massive step for any of you that have dabbled in modding the Arma titles, and the new animation system, as well as all the work the design team has done to new user actions takes the modding opportunities from what (to me) would feel like more of the same, modding Arma 2 or Arma 3 to a completely new level.

I could go on for hours about all the possibilities I see there, and all the fantastic mod authors I hope to see get their hands on it, and bring their own vision to DayZ. Namalsk, DayZ 2017, Taviana, Panthera, DayZero, and so much more. Part of some of the most exciting times as a fan of the DayZ Mod was when we began to see people create mods of the mod itself, and I genuinely feel that what DayZ will offer to the talent of those individuals is so far beyond what was possible before.

No, I don't have a set date for you for modding - but as it has been said in many status reports before - it will happen during our BETA phase of development. Obviously, for those that missed the announcement this will have to mean the release of the server tool package.

I just hope I get enough notice to stock up on snack food for when the first mods start hitting DayZ, because you can bet your ass I'm going to be losing countless hours of sleep exploring these new takes on DayZ as a player and not a developer.

- Brian Hicks / Creative Director

 

Dev Update/Eugen

Dear survivors, since there is no concise information on what BETA is and what exactly will happen near its release, I would like to focus on recapping what our current plans regarding these things are.

You might have seen our Gamescom video, but there is more to come and lot more things to work on. Because the 0.63 update is bringing all the new technology to you, the players, there will be a very tight feedback loop following its release to Experimental. There will be numerous changes coming in over the course of 0.63 Experimental, and some features might not be available on the first Experimental release, as we slowly ramp up to keep the performance and bug fixing focused.

There will be tons of players trying to get in, and we will try and accommodate as many players as possible, because I do strongly believe it will be very hard to go back to 0.62 after this huge change happens.

Now once that goes through all of the parts that need proper testing, and you are happy with the stability of the experience, we will start preparing for the Stable launch of 0.63 - the DayZ BETA. At that point in time, it is our intention to make DayZ server files available to anyone for free on Steam, meaning that you will be able to host your own servers. As far as platforms go, we aim to have these for both Linux and Windows.

Following that, I know a lot of people will start digging into the data itself and have fun modifying it. It's going to be interesting to see what you guys come up with. However, you might be a bit limited during the initial release, as the current state of things suggests that the modding toolset might be behind schedule, and will be released shortly after BETA comes online. The toolset will be running the new Enfusion tools that you might have seen on different pictures from the office, and will again be available to all our players.

But since lot of the data is compatible in some way, I think a lot of models will find their way into the game quickly, and people will start researching the new script as they test it out. Since almost everything you see in game will be written in script, you will have some amazing opportunities to change and bend the game in any way you want.

Together with the DayZ server release, we want to provide our back-end technology that we internally call the Srvlet. This is basically our hive implementation in its entirety. With this strong tool, you will be able to set up your own hive, and do anything you might have ever imagined with your servers. Because this is actually quite complex, our intention is to provide decent documentation for the technologies recommended to run this platform.

After the toolset gets out, we will look into opening the workshop on Steam, so that you guys can start sharing your creations freely. It's something we are especially excited about!

There is more to it of course, like having a DayZ Launcher as a central piece to access all that, and I will try and space out this information and go into more detail as we get closer. With what features we exactly have in mind, what content you should expect and how these things will be handled.

Hopefully this has helped you to understand how serious we are about this important milestone in DayZ development.

- Eugen Harton / Lead Producer

 

Dev Update/Peter

Alongside crucial improvements which affect core parts of DayZ such as movement, ranged or melee combat we often mentioned, there is also other parts which are very important for delivering the best overall experience.

You could already see the dynamic target selection in one of the previous Status Reports, and some of you could try it out in action with showcase of DEMO build at Gamescom. For me, together with whole HUD and new user actions, it’s an important part of the game which underlines all these great changes which separate old (0.62 and previous versions) and new DayZ (upcoming 0.63 AKA Beta).

From our internal playtests and feedback from players at Gamescom, we decided to improve the HUD part of dynamic target selection and user actions a bit further. Now there is more options related to user actions, usually performed on some kind of target in world, shown directly in the floating widget of dynamic target selection, which makes it more readable for the player. These were previously located in bottom left corner, and they were quite easily overlooked when they became possible to perform (remember new user actions are contextual). In bottom left corner, there are now only actions which are applied directly to your character for now.

Another improvement to the bottom left corner of HUD that we've currently made is the addition of item in hands. Its name, actual condition and its quantity or stack is now shown in the bottom left too, above actions. This offers constantly consistent overview of information related to equipped item and items around the character without the need to over-use inventory screen to find out such basic info.

While shuffling parts of HUD around, we ended with dynamic cross hair, also. It changes form contextually when needed, to indicate some possibilities or states. Good example is a time progression of currently performed continuous action. Of course, HUD visuals are nowhere near final by any means. For those players who want to be immersed as much as possible in the world of DayZ, there is an option to turn off HUD completely on demand (of course independently from quick-bar).

To mention melee combat as well, its state is very rough and basically still in a state of prototype. We wanted to proof the concept out with new system of targeting and full body attack animations which are locking character movement, alongside with hit impacts which can take controls of character completely. Now when we've laid the basics and seen the potential it has, it is the way to go for us, unless something unexpected happens.

As we definitely want to add some player skill to melee combat, we need to extend it with possibilities. Currently we are prototyping blocks, which reduce received damaged and influence hit impacts from attack, as well as evades, which helps to get out from line of attack. Next up is adding melee attacks with ranged weapons, like stabbing with bayonets, hitting with butt stock or pistol whips, as there is no worse feeling of helplessness when you are armed and someone successfully locks you into series of impacts and you need to throw gun down to be able to fight. 

Planned next are advanced moves such as knock-downs, finishing attacks on opponent on the ground or kicks/pushes. Anyway it’s really important for us to make solid foundation first because without it, melee combat won’t work as a whole, and it won’t matter how much depth and added layers will be there.

As far as new camera implementation I mentioned in last Status Report goes, it’s from great part done. We just need to promote some functionality to the script, so we can set specific FOV in iron sights and optics. Also we will be able to start toying with naked eye zoom again. Apart from that we are dealing with 3PP camera position in space in different modes like raised, melee combat or sprint.

With form following function... see you in Chernarus folks!

- Peter Nespesny / Lead Designer

 

Dev Update/Mirek

Some time has passed since I last wrote my Status Report. One of the reasons is that we're now working on longer term tasks and it's quite hard to write a Status Report without repeating myself. Another reason is that we're mostly working on things which aren't immediately visible. Today, I will summarise what we have done over the last two months.

During August, major part of the team worked on delivering features that ended up being part of the DEMO version for Gamescom. It was quite stressful, because time was passing very fast and we had to stabilise the DEMO build and fix the most visible issues. Anyway, I believe that we were successful and we could return to our unfinished work with a good feeling of accomplishment.

Now, we are mostly focused on improving character's movement and combat mechanics, because the entire development team is still not very satisfied with what we have presented at Gamescom. This is a very important part of the DayZ experience and we want to have the best possible implementation before we hit BETA. It's also important for fighting against the infected, because it's almost impossible to tweak and polish AI behaviour without having the player movement finalised - and so this is the reason why work on AI is also a bit on hold for now.

One of the major things which were in progress before Gamescom is the game entity hierarchy (which is how the scene is represented for the game - so it is a system you won't be able to see). DayZ has been using an Arma legacy "proxy object hierarchy" - and this technology was limiting us to do some of the more exciting stuff from the DayZ feature list.

We decided to switch this scene representation technology to the new one provided by our in-house Enfusion Engine. This will allow us to do things better and in a more optimised manner, allowing us to add more visual effects easily and for example create much better animations for weapons handling.

Another thing we're now working on is the re-implementation of vehicles using the new systems. I have to admit that we're still working mostly on the physics part, and the character part is still not ready - but we hope that we will start working on character representation in vehicles soon (probably right after movement and combat mechanics).

The entire system around vehicles has changed a lot. They are now composed of several configurable components, we're supporting generic number of axes (not only two like in 0.62 and before), handling is much more responsive and vehicles have a new suspension model, which will help players driver over smaller obstacles. Things which still are not finished are better tires friction model and simulation of some gearbox extreme limits.

I wasn't sure if I should show you the following teaser (like I said, the character representation in vehicles isn't ready yet), but here it is. This is how we're testing vehicle physics for now - please welcome Fred Flintstone as a DayZ survivor, testing the new suspension system:

(Please note: these are not final values for suspension and current values are serving for demonstration of new suspension model)

Also, there are things which I would like to write about the topic of modding and what we are doing for supporting this feature, but it would be a lot of text for now, so I will write about it in next status reports (at least I'll have some ammunition for next time!).

- Miroslav Maněna / Lead Gameplay Progammer

 

Dev Update/Martin

Hello survivors! As I shared in the last Status Report, creating videos of a game in development is not always an easy task for us. It takes a lot of time from our regular schedules, and the closer we are to major releases of DayZ, the less time we have for recording gameplay. After experiencing the production of the 0.63 Dev Log, evaluating our options, and looking at the upcoming BETA/1.0 releases, we've made the decision that now is the right time to invest into our video production some more.

Just yesterday, we've put up a job opening for what we at Bohemia call a Game Capture Artist. Ultimately, we're looking for a content creator that will work alongside me, Baty and Eugen, and spend most of his/her time capturing DayZ gameplay, as well as coming up with concepts of DayZ videos (and, eventually, trailers).

It's a job that provides a perfect opportunity for making the hire directly from our community of players and content creators, and we'd be the happiest people on Earth to actually hire a DayZ fan, so please do apply if the job ad sounds like something you'd like to do for a living! 

I'll just add a personal warning: don't be misguided into thinking that this job is just playing 0.63 all day! It's also a lot of planning and documentation, and you really need to understand the technical aspects of video production as well.

That said, we don't need years of professional experience, but a creative, organised and communicative person who's going to drive our video production to a very high standard. We also need you to work directly with us in Prague or Bratislava, but Bohemia Interactive will help you relocate should you feel a bit on the edge about that!

Send them CVs in - and come live closer to the real Chernarus!

- Martin Čulák / Brand Manager

 

Community Spotlight

Hey Survivors! 

These two weeks have passed really quickly! So, let's see what's happening in the community. 

I need to start with a letter sent to our forum. It is from our big supporter to the Dev Team. Her name is Baroness, she is an amazing content creator and her message made me cry. She met her husband in DayZ! What an amazing story! Thank you, Baroness, we love you!

 

Hello. You don’t really know me. Well, maybe Baty does, a bit, in a way. I’m just a regular player.

When the standalone came out, I was coerced by my brother into buying this game and play with him. I had never gamed on PC ever, had only ever slightly gamed on console when I was 12-13 (I am 34 now). Everything was very new to me. He told me it looked promising, explained what alpha was, and off we went on adventures as I spawned in Kamyshovo for the first time.

Being on the creative side I have always enjoyed documenting my travels inside Chernarus. When I had gathered enough friends, we made clans, we built communities, alliances and harbored hate with other groups, as these things usually go. Some are still ongoing friendships that are on a deeper level, and this is amazing to me.

About 2 years ago, some friends and I disbanded our group and decided to join a roleplaying community. It was fairly small at the time, and being the creative and helpful person I am, both of the leaders decided to include me on staff, where I developed some community management skills, learned to deal with all the kinds of hate that you guys are getting right now. I mean, I’ve been called Cersei more times than I can count on 2 hands.

I’ve sowed many seeds of rapport, friendship, kindness and warmth, and I’ve been able to reap affinities, loyal friends, loving bonds, and even love.

I met my husband in this last community, it was called ChernarusRP. My now husband (then-gamer-friend) and I joined forces and nurtured this incredible fellowship of like-minded survivalists with a penchant for roleplaying. All 700 of them. Us working together, entertaining complimentary notions of unity, respect and healthy dialogue,  got us thinking; we very quickly found out that, through working so closely together for a long period of time, we just ‘clicked’, and it just ‘worked’.

Within the year, our relationship grew steadily towards a goal that we felt was right for the both of us; he moved from Texas to be with me in Québec (Canada).

We have been together ever since. It was because of your game and everything that is has to offer, that I was able to meet the man of my dreams, the love of my life, my missing puzzle piece. My everything, really.

Why am I writing this to you? Because I’ve noticed lately all the hate that you are getting. Spaggie and I had a long and interesting conversation about everything that you guys do behind the scenes that go completely unnoticed.  He told me that he sometimes writes little thank you notes and encouragement in the bug tracker, just for you guys to see that all that you do is greatly appreciated. In my opinion, more people should do this, every day.

And had I not installed this game and kept at it, I would not be with this incredible man who I am with today.

And I have you guys to thank for that.

So thank you. For everything. BETA will be a blast I’m sure. I am following closely. We all are. And screw the haters. You got such a loving fan base and we’re all behind you and cheering you on. We might not tell you every day, but trust me, we all root for you and this wonderful game.

Thank you for reading.
Baroness <3

 

And thank you all for all your support, like in this thread. It means a world to us. Thank you! 

 

Let's see a new chapter of the Humans of Chernarus series. If you don't know it, it is a collection of thoughts of fictional people living across Chernarus. A people who are facing this post-apocalyptic world and try to survive to the next day. You can find the whole collection here. 

"Good luck is a funny thing. It always seems like it belongs to someone else. Bad luck, on the other hand, we all have it. We harbour it to convince ourselves that our problems and misdoings are not our own... However, there in truth I’ve learned one thing during my stay on this shitty Earth. There is no such thing as luck, good or bad. There are only those who are prepared, and those who are not.”

-Symon, of the Gomorrah Casino 

 

I love weddings! And I hope you do as well, because this one happened in DayZ. It may not have been the most romantic one, but it surely was entertaining.  Dr. Von Hauer married his wife in Novodmitrovsk church. They said their vows and lived happily until their deaths. Which could not have been too long, as it is DayZ after all. I myself almost got married in DayZ, so I envy the bride for making it all the way. The highlight of the video for me is the flower boy, who throws pieces of ghillie on the ground.

 

Let's check out some art now. 

Valdark2 posted his newest picture to Reddit and it is pretty cool, what do you think? 

 

If you need some large wallpapers, just tell NeuroticEUROtic, he is a specialist. It is sometimes hard to find a really good wallpaper for three monitors but this guy can sort you out.  

Here is Skalisty Panorama 5760 x 1080 by him and it is beautiful. I have it on my background already :) 

 

The last thing that I was looking forward to showing you today is a riddle again! 

In the last Status Report, it was West Lopatino Evacuation Camp. You sent me a lot of correct answers last time and you said it was toooooo easy. Okey! Here is a challenge for you. Where can you find this deer stand? Send me your answers to our official Twitter account. And thank you for all your answers!

 

That is all from me today guys. Have a nice day and play DayZ! 

Header picture: WilliamFilms

- Baty / Community Manager

[IMT 3190]

Very nice Status Report with a lot of information. The wait is long but in the end it will be 100 % worth it.

And @Baroness  that's an awesome message and you're right, 100 %. Even though I might not play DayZ that much currently or be that active on the forums lately, I still can't wait for 0.63 hit those Experimental servers. DayZ has been and still is my favorite game since I started playing it and I don't know if any game will surpass that.

Even though a lot of people give the game and developers a lot of shit, I think the community who still supports this game makes it worth it. The developers show an huge love for the game themselves and want to do everything right. And they're right because there isn't a fully released post-apocalyptic survival game who has done it right.

Keep up the good work and I'll be patiently waiting until the beast gets unleashed.

[ImageCtrl 719]

Triple A game incoming.

[Conrad_The_Comrade 577]

Something I honestly really loved was the teaser Mirek showed. I know showing off something that appears broken isn't really beneficial when you're showcasing a game, but DayZ is still a WIP, and the players here are practically all here to test your content, and to some extent help create the game too. Being transparent like that with us really does help in my opinion. I want to see the good, bad, and the ugly. We are here to support y'all, and letting us see where development is at even when it isn't pretty really helps (at least me). Keep up the great work guys!

[Baroness 462]

@IMT i miss you!! <3

[Arthur Dubrovka 376]

mmmmhhh... I don´t know exactly where that deerstand is. But maybe Veresnik?

Good SR again thank you all! 

 

[Sqeezorz 839]

great SR with interesting information and stories

But something, you really test with very embarrassing things. Standing in the vehicle, no doors, no safety belts and freehand on the steering wheel..OMG
Safety first pleace ;-))

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

How the devs make me feel:

[ImageCtrl 719]

6 hours ago, Baty Alquawen said:

Here is Skalisty Panorama 5760 x 1080 by him and it is beautiful. I have it on my background already :) 

 

 

I did the same. Looks awesome. (taskbar options - turn on "use small taskbar buttons" to get rid of the search field) xd

https://imgur.com/a/jx1d1

^^ I took the smiley out and the black dot in the sea. Removed shadows at the fire.

Edited October 11, 2017 by ImageCtrl

[igor-vk 909]

There was weding video few years ago, I think Mr Moon was minister and performed weding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNiCxds33hA

 

[green_mtn_grandbob 594]

i know that deer stand it's on a small hill west of a mil base.

[emuthreat 2837]

It still seems alien to me how much hate the DayZ dev team has gotten over the years for putting their figurative noses to the grindstone and committing to the unbelievably difficult task of making a post-apoc zombie survival simulator of this scope.
I find it admirable that BI had the foresight to stand behind this project and see it through to the end, when so many other games will end up mediocre because of release deadlines and quarterly earnings goals.

Watching this project come along since I bought-in way back in .51 has been a uniquley interesting experience.  I can't help but look back and laugh at myself for buying DayZ because I thought the game was half-done, and wanted to learn the ropes before it hit the mainstream.

Keep up the great work, I can't wait to be able drive over twigs in the road again.

[philbur 476]

Someone should really get hold of Frankie and tear him away from his studies/job so he can fill the role of content capture/creator.

His scripted episodes of the mod were simply awesome...and largely how I was sucked in to the mod in the first place.

Too bad he went and got a day job, hehe.

[IMT 3190]

9 hours ago, Baroness said:

@IMT i miss you!! <3

I miss you too @Baroness!

7 hours ago, igor-vk said:

There was weding video few years ago, I think Mr Moon was minister and performed weding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNiCxds33hA

 

Well, he was kind of a self assigned guard haha.

59 minutes ago, philbur said:

Someone should really get hold of Frankie and tear him away from his studies/job so he can fill the role of content capture/creator.

His scripted episodes of the mod were simply awesome...and largely how I was sucked in to the mod in the first place.

Too bad he went and got a day job, hehe.

I would be up for that. I absolutely loved his Barefoot bandit video. I think it's his best video ever. The music in the end fits the video at that point so well, it's amazing.

[Seitan 161]

0.63_BETA going to Experimental is going to blow the Internet. Status report that gives hope and makes the waiting game even longer, if that's possible. Starting to feel same kind of excitement that was on when waiting standalone to hit steam store. Don't really have any other game at the moment, that i want to play daily. Started to play Deus Ex: Mankind Divided second time from the start to fill my gaming needs. Great game and set in Prague ;) But i would prefer waiting in the dayz server lobby to get into 0.63 experimental server anytime.

[nl 986]

I don't use twitter but I think the deerstand is here (coordinates in pic):

 

Edited October 11, 2017 by nl

[igor-vk 909]

2 hours ago, nl said:

I don't use twitter but I think the deerstand is here (coordinates in pic):

Yes, I always log out there.

[Arthur Dubrovka 376]

5 hours ago, nl said:

I don't use twitter but I think the deerstand is here (coordinates in pic):

 

Yes exactly :D

[BeefBacon 1185]

I'd totally be up for the game capture artist gig. I actually aleady design videogame trailers, and even capture in-game footage for said trailers (some devs are absolutely clueless as to what should go into a trailer or their promotional content.) Not sure I could commit to moving to Bratislava though :D

[Baroness 462]

16 minutes ago, BeefBacon said:

I'd totally be up for the game capture artist gig. I actually aleady design videogame trailers, and even capture in-game footage for said trailers (some devs are absolutely clueless as to what should go into a trailer or their promotional content.) Not sure I could commit to moving to Bratislava though :D

Do it!

[Legion252 7]

Great report, really makes me exited about the future of dayz espeacially the prospect of modding(Namalsk Hype). Hopefully the devs will still be able to have something out before Chrismas since it still sounds like there is a lot of work to be done but I could be wrong.

[DMentMan 707]

Cool stuff =D

[RaptorM60 392]

2 hours ago, BeefBacon said:

I'd totally be up for the game capture artist gig. I actually aleady design videogame trailers, and even capture in-game footage for said trailers (some devs are absolutely clueless as to what should go into a trailer or their promotional content.) Not sure I could commit to moving to Bratislava though :D

Can't speak for life in Bratislava but Prague is seriously cool, and as I said, we'll help with the relocation :) 

[IMT 3190]

3 minutes ago, RaptorM60 said:

Can't speak for life in Bratislava but Prague is seriously cool, and as I said, we'll help with the relocation :) 

I kind of do understand him since you need to learn a new language, it's a completely different country, new surroundings, etc.

[RaptorM60 392]

16 minutes ago, IMT said:

I kind of do understand him since you need to learn a new language, it's a completely different country, new surroundings, etc.

Oh yeah absolutely, I mean moving to a different country is certainly a bold thing to do and needs to be well considered, no doubts about that.